For efficient plumbing repairs create a "house account"

Imagine walking into the basement of a house you've never been in before and fumbling around to locate the light switch. Eventually you'll be able to turn on the lights and find what you need. Now imagine that scenario multiplied dozens of times, which is what happens when a service technician walks into a high-rise apartment building for the first time, and tries to sort out the plumbing problem we've just been called in to solve. Of course, we can get it done, but it takes time to determine where the water main comes in, what kind of pressure booster pumps the building has, how the roof tank is tied in to the water system, what type of sprinkler system there is, whether the building has a backflow preventer, where the waste line is, and much more. And of course, you pay for that time while we examine and diagnose what your building needs. And if that time is for an emergency or on a weekend, it can add a substantial cost to the job. Preparing for problems in advance In order to avoid this type of situation, we recommend that your building set up what we call a "house plumber account." When a new building joins Varsity as a house account, we send a plumbing supervisor to your property in advance of any issues, who spends an hour or two analyzing your systems, putting them into our computers, and getting our staff prepared to handle any situation that may arise in your building. Then, when a problem comes up, we can get right to work fixing it. This system saves our clients a significant amount of money each year. Not only does having a house account make all the work quicker and easier - and less expensive for you - it also guarantees that we know what parts you might need at any given moment, and can either stock them in our 8,000 s/f warehouse, or have them on hand at one of the many plumbing supply houses we use as vendors. Either way, it's a big win for our clients - since it reduces the need to have a plumber on-site waiting for a part to be delivered, while being billed for the plumber's time. Quicker Response, Lower Cost There is an additional benefit to having a house account; emergency response time. When a major disaster hits, like Hurricane Sandy last year, we are inundated with requests to help. And of course, our first responsibility is always to our existing clients - those with house accounts. Only after we came to the aid of our regular customers were we able to reach out and help new clients solve their problems. We at Varsity Plumbing have been helping owners and managers solve plumbing problems for over 50 years, and we've learned a few things that help our clients save money and get their buildings back in working order as quickly as possible. This summer alone, we have helped one of our customers replace all the HVAC valves in their 75-unit apartment building; another had us all raise the bathrooms and lavatories on an entire floor by four inches because they were installed incorrectly; and for another property we changed out the sump pump system and related piping because they were incorrectly sized. In each of these cases, being a house account saved time - and money - for these clients. To discuss establishing a Varsity Plumbing house account visit our website at VarsityPlumbing.com. Bobby Bellini is president of Varsity Plumbing and Heating, Inc., Flushing, N.Y.